New "must-have" plug-in for DPS

The cornerstone of creating interactive content for DPS is multi-state objects (mso’s) and buttons. Complex interactive content can result in mso's with lots of states, and lots of buttons. The Objects States Assistant plug-in adds a bunch of missing commands for working with mso’s that should be included with InDesign, but are not. For example, you can:

- Add selected objects to all states in a single operation, and the objects stay in place and don’t lose their button actions

- Add objects to multiple states in a single operation, and the objects stay in place and don’t lose their button actions

- Paste objects into all states in a single operation, and the objects don’t lose their button actions

- Delete multiple states in a single operation

- Release multiple states in a single operation

- “Step and repeat” a single button and have each new button point to a different state in the mso

- Quickly display the next/previous state with a single button click

These commands are available through the OSA panel, which can be found in Window > Interactive > Object States Assistant, and also in the States panel menu. In the image below, I’ve docked the OSA panel with the State panel.

Of course, you can add keyboard shortcuts with InDesign’s Keyboard Shortcut Editor to any of these new commands, making it even more useful.

2 comments:

@David, there is some overlap between Object States Assistant and my Digital Publishing Pack 1 and 2 sets of scripts, but both contain some features that are unique. I'm convinced that anyone doing production work in DPS should have both for the time that they save.